Conservatives regularly rail against liberal bias in academe, but rarely do such complaints turn into lawsuits that make it all the way to trial. On Monday, Teresa R. Wagner gets to make that argument in a federal court in Davenport, Iowa. She maintains that University of Iowa law-school faculty turned her down for teaching jobs because of her conservative political views.

“This will put a spotlight on a terrible injustice that is being perpetrated throughout American higher education,” said Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, who says he routinely hears from rejected conservative professors. “What makes Teresa Wagner’s case so extraordinary is she came up with the documentary evidence of what was really going on.”